The first ketamine clinic in the UK has received approval from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to begin treatments.
The clinic, based in Bristol, has been established by biotechnology company Awakn Life Sciences and is the second of three Awakn clinics to be operational this year. The clinic will now begin delivering ketamine-assisted psychotherapy treatments this month.
CMO of Awakn, Dr Ben Sessa, commented: “This is a very exciting moment for Awakn Life Sciences, but more importantly for anyone suffering from addiction or other mental health issues in the UK.
“The recognition from the CQC is a step forward in having psychedelic therapies become a part of mainstream treatments. With the Bristol clinic recognised, Awakn remains committed to having clinical operations open to the public, to help those people who need it the most.”
Treatments at the clinic will be led by on-site psychiatrists and will treat a number of mental health disorders and addictions. The ketamine treatments remain subject to receipt of a final schedule 2 licence from the Home Office, which the Awakn says it expects to receive in the near future
Awakn’s second psychedelic therapy clinic is based in London, and the other is based in Oslo, Norway, both set up with the aim of delivering psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy treatments for addiction and other mental health conditions.
The company is also carrying out the first-ever study investigating the use of ketamine treatment for gambling addiction, using psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which has received ethical committee approval and will look at whether ketamine administration can modify the reward memories associated with gambling.
